Big Idea:
By introducing students to the idea of quotation marks as beginning readers, students begin to understand the idea of dialogue.

Learning about punctuation, including quotation marks, is an emergent literacy skill. Although all children might not have mastery of the skills taught, they can be introduced to the names of the punctuation marks and the functions that they have in the text. I chose to show the video, so that the children could hear the dialogue and see the quotation marks. This gives me the freedom from a book to point out the punctuation in a way that everyone can see.

Today we are going to be learning about a punctuation mark called quotation marks.

You have heard stories where characters are talking, but have you ever noticed in books the little curved lines that look like commas, but they are buddied up and "in the sky" instead of "on the ground" like commas? We will be looking at how authors use quotation marks in their books and will discuss their purpose.

Now, we are going to watch a short video clip about Billy and Kate. Look for the quotation marks as we watch their story.

This is a good time to get the pointer out and show exactly where the quotation marks are located.

Did anyone notice anything in particular about the quotation marks in the video? (There were two on each side; they showed the words people used, etc.)

I would like to share a song with you about quotation marks. What I like about this song is that it has a great tune to help you to remember how quotation marks are used. Listen to it once; echo chant me; and then we will sing it together. Our song gives you one way to remember quotation marks, but the story that I'm reading today will help you to see how these punctuation marks work.

I am going to share a book with you called, If You Were a Quotation Mark. This book will show you how quotation marks are used. When I am finished reading the book to you, we will make a list of how quotation marks are used. ( Examples: direct dialogue, names of stories.) You will mainly use quotation marks to show that someone is talking. Take a look at these sentences that I wrote.

I have forgotten to add quotation marks, so I will need your help to put the quotation marks in the right place.This will show me if you are beginning to understand how quotation marks work.

Resources (3)

Resources

After we practiced a few sentences on the board, the children were given their own sentence strip to write a dialogue sentence. The students write "I love" sentences because these are words that they can read and easily complete the sentence with words that they can write without much assistance.

Children by following the theme of "I love ____," said _____, you will write out a sentence on the sentence strips that shows that you are talking. Then we will take your sentence strip, fold it in half, and glue them inside a large piece of construction paper to create a pop-up card.

When they are available, I like to make the quotation marks from packing peanuts. I would give each child two packing peanuts. Take the packing peanuts and brake each one in half. Then take the two pieces and glue them where your quotation marks should be located.

On this occasion, I did not have any so I had the children use the quotation marks from my old sheets of scrapbook lettering.

As the children are working, I am walking around and asking them questions in regard to their work. I can observe if they are putting the quotation marks in the correct places and will ask them to read their sentences to me.